Perfect
by winter machine
Summary: A/U, one-shot.  The past is written; the future could have gone this way.


**Part fluff, part what-if - it pestered me until I wrote it down.**

**Perfect (1/1)**

She knows she's not supposed to bother the Captain when he's working, but it has been a very long time. She's already colored three pictures and looked at all the big framed diplomas on the walls and rolled the fountain pen off his desk.

There's neat stuff in his office. She wants to hold the pink rubber model of a woman's belly with a little baby in it, but it's too high up to reach, even though she's tall - the tallest girl in her whole class.

She could ask Valerie to get it for her. Valerie works in her father's office. She answers the phone when patients call and wears a stiff white dress. And she has long, shiny hair like Marcia on the _Brady Bunch_. Sometimes when they come here Valerie gives her a lollipop. Once she had a sticker book for her to play with while she and the Captain worked.

But when they got to the office today, the Captain just gave Valerie a big grown-up kiss - yuck - and then they went right into the meeting room to do some work.

So she pulls a chair up to the tall bookshelf all by herself.

"Stay in here and be a good girl," her father said, just like he always does, before he closed the door. She is a good girl. She's_ very _quiet, even after she falls - _crash!_ - when the chair slips out from under her polished mary janes.

Her mouth tastes funny where she banged it. She spits a little blood into her hand, then some more. She finds a handkerchief on the Captain's desk and sits down on the floor, Indian-style, holding it on her mouth.

The Captain's office is very, very big so they probably didn't hear her fall, which is good because she knows the rule is to be very, very quiet.

A little bit of blood drips onto her white tights. She'll have to hide them when she gets home because her mother does _not _like stains.

Valerie opens the door with a wide smile.

"Hi, sweetie, you're so quiet I almost forgot - oh gosh, you're bleeding! Dr. Montgomery!"

"Kitten, what happened?"

"I wanted to see the model," she says behind the handkerchief pressed to her face.

"This one? Here," the Captain hands her one, but it's not the right one. This one looks like an elbow, not a belly with a baby in it. It's just a big elbow with all sorts of funny colorful things in it. But it's better than nothing, so she holds onto it, bending it up and down like a real arm.

"You're so brave," Valerie coos. Addison wrinkles her nose - she's not a baby - but Valerie is holding her on her lap, and she's soft and smells delicious, and it's kind of nice to lean against her and be cuddled.

"I'll need to take a few stitches. Hold still, kitten."

"I want to look," she says, wriggling, when the Captain brings over his tools, shines a light in her mouth.

Valerie digs out her makeup mirror for her to hold and she watches as he sews up the inside of her lip.

"Isn't that too scary, watching?" Valerie asks.

"No way." Addison snuggles a little closer. Valerie's lap is warm. No wonder the Captain likes her so much.

"All finished." He tips her face toward the light. "When those stitches come out, you'll look perfect."

"Beautiful job, doctor," Valerie admires the stitches.

"Now, you remember what you're going to tell your mother..."

Addison nods happily. She has one hand in the Captain's and one in Valerie's as they walk to the car, and it feels so good she wishes they could walk all the way home. She wonders if she can get away with swinging from their hands.

"We went to the playground and I fell on the jungle gym."

"Perfect. Good girl."

"Can we go there now? To the jungle gym?"

"Not now, kitten, it's getting late." He pats the top of her head.

"You coming in?" she asks when he pulls up to their house.

"Later. Dinner. You go on inside."

"Archie, look!" she cries as soon as she finds her brother.

"Neat."

"I got stitches, see?"

"Hey, you have a lisp now, Addie."

"I _don't._" She glares at him.

"Say 'Addison.'"

"Ad-di-son. See?"

"Addithon," he teases her.

She shoves him. "Cut it out!"

"All right, that's enough. Go and get washed up for supper."

Laurie is _not _her favorite nanny.

"Look at my mouth!" Addison tugs on Laurie's hand. "Look!"

"Look at your _hands_, Addison. And your tights! They're filthy. Go and clean yourself up, your mother's going to be at supper tonight..."

"I hurt my mouth."

Laurie peers into her mouth. "Oh, look at that. Well, hurry and get washed up. You know that your mother -"

Her mother likes everything to be perfect. She knows.

Addison scrubs her hands in the big sink, balls up her stained tights and shoves them in the back of her wardrobe. One of her knees is turning an interesting purple color. Archer will definitely be jealous.

"All washed, see?" Addison shows Laurie her hands. It took her a little longer in the bathroom because she was practicing her story in front of the mirror, so that when Bizzy asks "What happened?" she'll say it just right: "Daddy took me to the playground and I was climbing on the jungle gym and I fell."

"Was" comes out kind of like "wath." Archer will probably laugh.

At the dining room table, her mouth feels a little funny and she has to drink her milk very, very carefully so the glass doesn't bump it too much. Bizzy doesn't ask her what happened. Addison starts to say it anyway, at least to avoid having to chew up the cornish hen, but her mother says "The adults are speaking, dear."

She makes an "ow" sound, by accident, when she bites down. It hurts a little, even though she's very brave. Bizzy doesn't say anything.

Archer sneaks the tough parts off her plate when no one is looking and eats them, so Laurie won't get mad when she clears up.

_Daddy took me to the playground. I was climbing on the jungle gym and I fell._

She practices very carefully, but she never has to say it, because Bizzy never asks.

Her stitches stay in for two weeks.

"Addie? You with us?"

"Of course," she says. "Sorry. I was just thinking."

"Mommy, didn't you hear me?" Maude bounces on her toes with excitement. "I said I climbed the rings, the big-kid rings, all by myself, and I _almost _fell and Daddy catched me."

"I was right there the whole time, Addie," Mark whispers to her, his chin tickling her ear.

She pulls him in for a quick kiss. "I know you were."

To Maude she says: "I heard you, monkey, and I want to see that ring trick tomorrow."

Addison plucks her daughter out of her muddy, bright-blue wellies, turns her upside down in her striped-stockinged feet until she shrieks with laughter, then rights her with a kiss. "It sounds like you had a _very _exciting afternoon."

"I saw a mama duck with babies," Maude's blue eyes widen. The ducks in Prospect Park are her favorites. "And they splashed me!"

"You waded in and splashed yourself, I think," Mark corrects gently, ruffling her sandy curls.

"I want the green bubbles in my bath." Maude spreads her muddy hands wide. "This many bubbles."

"Okay, Maudie." Addison drops a kiss on her daughter's dirt-smudged nose. "Let's see how many bubbles we can fit in the tub before dinner. You hungry?"

"I am _very_ hungry. The ducks ate all the bread!"

"I'll take bathtime,"Addison tells Mark as her daughter's bright head disappears up the wide staircase.

"I'll pull together dinner."

"That's a deal."

She touches his scruffy cheek, steps carefully through the trail of toys, books and games their daughter leaves daily in her wake throughout their Brooklyn townhouse. She'll clean them up later, or maybe next weekend. Medical texts and picture books mingle on the huge window seat overlooking the park.

Mark stops her as she starts to head upstairs, pulls her in for a longer kiss. "What were you really thinking about, before?" he asks.

"This," she says. "I was thinking that this is perfect."


End file.
